Custom made Protein Skimmer.

[KingNeptunesBounty]

Well from browsing through various threads I know this is most likely the thousandth time someone has asked for advice on building there own Protein Skimmer. Now personally I am not looking to build a Protein Skimmer to lower my overall cost. My main goal is to build a custom piece of equipment tailored to my overall specifications with the added bonus of being able to say I designed and manufactured it myself. So if you have experience in building you own Protien Skimmer, working with Acrylic, working with PVC than any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will post rough schematics of the idea of the overall design shortly.

 

[NYreefNoob]

Most skimmers would cost you more to build then to buy

 

[KingNeptunesBounty]

Response to Nyreefnoob.

Most skimmers would cost you more to build then to buy

That fact I am completely aware of and overall cost of building a custom made Protein Skimmer myself rather than purchasing a readily available Protein Skimmer from a well known manufacturer as I stated in the initial post. I would rather have the feeling of accomplishment knowing that I build this unit from the ground up.

 

[Imbarrie]

I thought there was a post on reef central about a DIY skimmer.
They used sterlite containers and PVC fittings. Very insightful.

 

[OzoneParkGuy]

Just keep in mind you will not find any pvc at HD or Lowes with a diameter of over 5" when you decided to build yours. The wider and higher, the more contact time in the chamber, the better off you are. Lowes will however have a better selection of Adjustable Repair Couplings and Unions. The uniseals will be hard to come by so you will have to order them online. I started a project of building my own skimmer 36 inches high but never completed it. I believe Melv's reef has a diagram for a DIY recirculating skimmer. GL and let me know how it went!!!

 

[tosiek]

The only problem i see is that your not actually going to be improving on anything really, just copying whats currently out there in a bulky PVC/Acrylic build. And that you might actually lose performance over whats available for purchase currently. Plus your gonna lose all the dings and whistles like custom plumbing parts for it and the inability to CNC parts might be a hindrance.

IMO if its gonna be standard size and you have a type your shooting for its better to buy one than build it and spend that time on something else for your tank. I try to DIY most of my stuff for my tank, and there are two things i wouldn't touch, ones a skimmer and the other is the glass part of the tank. I'll go through a custom company and spend the $$ for the tank and i'd buy the better skimmer to save myself the headache.

 

[lemonyx]

This is my diy skimmer, clone of a MSX160

really pull the gunk out to a diy waste collector